AN: Decided to do this from Tony's point of view because I thought it would be interesting.
Tony was really surprised but he had actually been having fun this evening. A lot of fun. Playing Scrabble of all things. A word game that was definitely more up McGee's alley than his. But here he was, sitting with a bunch of people he didn't know and his partner, playing the game, having fun.
Of course, the fun he was having wasn't completely down to playing Scrabble. It had a lot to do with being able to tease Ziva as well, which was always fun. Dangerous but fun. Actually, she wasn't that dangerous this evening as she hadn't threatened him bodily harm once this evening. Sure, she had been glaring at him but no threats of physical violence or stabbing with the knife she was undoubtedly carrying. Which was quite odd for her.
Or, at least that's what he had thought at the beginning but as the evening had continued Tony realised that Ziva wasn't as antagonistic or flirty here as she was at work. Actually, she came across quite amiable, if a little aggressive in wanting to win. But everyone here was like that, a lot of hot tempers. For example, his host literally embodied the angry, old Mexican woman stereotype. Which was quite funny as long as it kept on being directed at the tiles and not him.
Speaking of tiles, Tony looked down at his and had to frown. There were no good letters there at all and he was already second to last. He couldn't afford to slip further for fear of ridicule. Or at least some teasing. He was the one that did the teasing.
What on earth was he meant to do with a Q, a X, two A's, a L, a B and an E? Why was X included in the tiles at all? There weren't that many words that had it in them.
He grumbled to himself and he could feel the looks of amusement that were directed at him. Hmpf. None of them had any issues with putting down words. None at all. Hmm.
"This game is rigged," he declared.
There was just no way he would get that many bad tiles in a row. Hmpf.
"Why is it always the English speaker that claims it is rigged?" Raphael asked and gestured to himself, Ziva and Lukas. "You don't see us complaining."
"Because you are beating us!" Amelia exclaimed.
"You say that like it is a bad thing."
It was very much a bad thing when Tony was not winning. He liked to win.
"I think the bag can sense that we have an advantage," he said, poking the bag.
Ziva yanked his hand away.
"The bag is not sentient, Tony," she scolded.
Of course, she would say that, she was winning! He grumbled something and glared back down at his tiles, like he could make them change to different letters if he tried hard enough. No dice. But something else did happen. He realised that he did, in fact, have a word he could put down.
He put one A and his B, L and E down, making 'doable'. Not a bad word at all.
"You're ahead of me now," Amelia complained.
"Finally," Tony teased her, getting him a dirty look on response.
"He will not be getting ahead of me," Lukas assured them all as Tony grabbed his new tiles from the bag, the German student was in the lead at the moment.
"Not for long," Ziva said confidently.
It was her turn and she looked extremely smug. That never turned out well for him.
And it definitely didn't in this case as Ziva laid down half of her tiles to make 'highjack' which put her firmly in the lead.
Okay, the was a pretty good word Tony had to begrudgingly admit. Why did she get the tiles for that instead of the mess he got? Was he really just that unlucky?
It all went downhill from there for him as Francisca, Raphael and Lukas also stayed ahead of him. Only Amelia slipped behind him but they were depressingly close together.
Anyway, it was his turn again and he actually had a word this time. It used up almost all of his tiles.
"Oh, come on!" Raphael complained, crossing his arms to show his displeasure.
It put Tony right ahead of him and it was basically the final round. Tony just grinned at the overly dramatic man.
"Not so fun now, is it?"
That just got him a face in return, which made him laugh. This was great fun. How could he ever have thought that this was going to be boring?
Of course, that feeling didn't necessarily last for very long.
"I can't believe you won," he grumbled at Ziva not ten minutes later.
Of all the people here, he did not think that Ziva would have one. Which sounded horrible but really, did you hear her English sometimes?
"I told you I was a good player."
Well, yes, she had but he had taken that with a grain of salt. This was Ziva for crying out loud. The woman who still sometimes got her reports returned because of the awkward phrasing she used or silly spelling mistakes. Granted, it wasn't all the time but it still happened often enough that Tony had seriously been sceptical of her ability to win a scrabble game. Especially against a native English speaker.
But he was man enough to admit when he had been wrong.
"Well, well done," he said with a pout.
Hey, he was still competitive, even if it was just a word game. Especially when it was against his partner. At least he hadn't come last, that would have just been awful. Fourth place out of six wasn't too awful at all, he supposed. And there had only been three points between him and Francisca!
"Don't worry, McGee did not win his match either," Ziva assured him.
That perked him up and a smirk came over his face.
"Oh, really?"